Hobie 14 vs Hobie Bravo?

Hello,

I have been sailing my Hobie 14 for 10 years. I love my 14, but, have always held back sailing it to its full potential because I can't right the boat on my own. I'm a small sailor weighing 115lbs, have a mast bob, have tried the water bucket method, swim the tip of the mast so it's pointing into the wind, and have gotten plenty of advice/help from my local fleet. I simply don't have the 'ballast' to right it.

I love the Hobie performance, but, am considering selling my 14 and getting a Bravo (or something else? I am open to suggestions...) I really want to sail a boat to its full potential and start racing again, and be a self-sufficient sailor that can sail on my own without the fear of there not being someone out there for extra ballast to help me right my boat. So, I'm looking for a boat that's fun to sail for an experienced sailor, that I can right myself, and that's fairly quick to setup - any suggestions?

Thanks so much for your advice!!!

I can't speak for the other boats, but I can sympathize with your problem- I bought my 14 to sail in higher winds because I couldn't always right my 16 solo. Bravos kind of remind me of the old Hobie 12 monocat (30 year Hobie sailor here) I'll bet at 115 you can really smoke on the 14 though!
Dave

Curious why you can not right the boat, even with a water bucked? Have you checked your mast for leaks?

Even at 105 lbs, with a bucket you should be able to get the 14 over. That would bring you up to about 180lbs. if you get the larger 100lb bucket from Murrays you should have no trouble at all.

If you are going to get a new boat, have you thought about the wave?

Brent

Hi! Yes, I have done the soapy water/bubble test to look for leaks and the mast seems to be good. Thank you for the suggestion though - I appreciate all lines of thought!

Technically, yes, the water bucket should work weight-wise and bring me up to 180lbs to right my 14...however, even though I'm relatively strong for my size, being a stereotypical small woman I don't have tons of upper body strength so it's pretty tough to balance a filled water bucket over your shoulder weighing 80% of your body weight while standing on a wet hull bobbing around in the waves... So, in theory, it should work out great; but in practice, it's a whole other story... My dad and other members of our fleet have tried it out as well on their 16s & 18s to see if I was just being goofy and uncoordinated, and most of them couldn't get it to work by themselves either... nuts...

Ah well, I've decided to give the righting pole a try. I'll keep my 14 since it's such a blast and trust in the kindness of others to lend a hand when I invariably go in the drink...

Just curious,

Which righting bucket do you have? The small one with no block and tackle or the larger one with the block and cleat?

I do admit that one without block and tackle is a bit clumsy to use. When I had to use it, the rope was too long, and even with running an extra loop over the hull back to the dolphin striker (on a 16), by the time I got flat, it was still allready in the water.

When i capsized the 16 by myself, by the time I could get off the trap, and onto the hull the mast was allready about 4 inches below the surface of the water, and I couldn't get it back up. Even with the bucket.

Since the 3 jet skiers that where circleing couldnt figure out how to help me, I stayed with the boat and just kept trying things. I ended up walking all the way back on the hulls a couple of times with the righting line. Pushes the back of the boat in the water, got the bows up (AND I MEAN WAY UP!) Until I had no more righting moment on the righting line. At that point the boat was at about a 45 degree angle with the mast down under water. Taking a leap of faith, I jumped onnto the center of the rear cross bar pulling the righting line down to me. and had enough momentum that I was able to bring the boat into a full turtle and over on the other side. (Kind of a big half arc). This was enough that it got the mast out of the water and floating. In this configuration I was able to ride the boat into the beach, where I just walked the shrouds up and righted the boat.

Then and I only then did I realise how much effort I had used, and was COMPLETELY exhausted! So I sat on the boat and reseted for a bit, and then went right back out!

I don't know how the heck I managed to get out of that situation, It was just dumb luck and refusing to give up! I will never know how I had enough momentum and leverage to bring the boat through a full turtle, dragging the mast through the mud! When I got the boat back into the ramp later that afternoon I found I had 4 inches of dried mud on the top of the mast..

Not bad for being only 185 lbs eh?

Brent
H-16 (S# 13566)

Steph,

Here are the pictures my friend tood that day. He had come down to photograph, and when I capsized was driving over to the other side of the bay where we got the other shots.

He was completely bummed he didn't get a picture of my capsize (He wanted to be able to laugh at me!)

Anyways, you can see how much mud I got on the measthead, the bummer was when it was time to take the sail down at the dock, it wouldn't budge. So I had to sail the boat onto the trailer, tow it over and push it onto the grass and capsize it again, and then pull the sail down from the top.

Funny thing was, where I had to back it was a red zone! Once I pulled my trailer in there, 3 other people parked their boats there to prep them for going home. This attracted the attention of a passing police cruiser, and he came over to start writing tickets. I explained to him my situation and that I really had no other choice... So I was the only one to escape getting a ticket!

The other funny thing from looking at those photo's later, is that I thought I was sailing rather conservatively after allready capsizing one. You coudln't tell that from the trap pictures

And yes, that is indeed a look of pride on my face (and allot of mud on my shirt) afterwards!!

Here is the link

http://homepage.mac.com/svannie/PhotoAlbum1.html

Ah - I do have the smaller bucket without the block & tackle. aka "The Humbler" - nothing like feeling like an uncoordinated goof in front of the entire local Hobie Fleet! But it was good for a few laughs!

Holy cow! Sounds like you had an adventure! Luckily, where I sail there is a regular slew of Hobies from the local fleet to offer educated assistance when I invariably go swimming with my boat so I don't have to explain to a bunch of well-meaning jetskiers how to best help out.

Thanks for sharing your photos and war stories! I'm off to our local Hobie Dealer to get a righting pole and conduct yet another experiment. I'm really hopeful about this one!